Saia and its subsidiaries — LTL Freight, Truckload Plus, and Logistics Services — employ 8,000 individuals and provide services to all 50 states as well as Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. The truckload carrier has a network of 147 terminals across North America and delivers more than 25,000 daily shipments.

The crisis has challenged the transportation sector in the region, which is served from the north by Kansas City Southern Railway and from the west by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. The over-the-road sector, though, has been hit the hardest.

The first shoots of spring U.S. freight demand appeared in February, with Saia and Old Dominion Freight Line reporting increases in shipments that could signal stronger or at least more stable manufacturing and freight shipping activity.

Saia was unable to ride pricing discipline to increased profitability in the fourth quarter as volume declines, which have hit other less-than-truckload operators, proved too much to overcome for the tenth-largest U.S. LTL carrier.